


Anything

by AwesomeMango7



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Angst, Coldness, Fluff, Hypothermia, I don’t know what other tags to put, Ice, Rick Cares, but it’s fluffy, kinda sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 21:47:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14317839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwesomeMango7/pseuds/AwesomeMango7
Summary: Rick and Morty find themselves in an ice dimention. There's one problem, though. they get captured by the native ice monsters and tossed in jail.





	Anything

**Author's Note:**

> Guys, I wrote this all the way back on New Years. So like, at the very beginning of 2018, lol. That was a while ago. I hope you enjoy!

It was cold. Very cold. And dark. His head was pounding as he slowly regained his consciousness after however long he'd been knocked out. The last thing he remembered... it was... he remembered him and Morty going off for an adventure in an ice dimension to get some extremely rare ice crystals. He was going to use them to make a more advanced ice ray that was requested by one of his buyers.

But someone found them, and Rick... did someone knock him out? Yeah... yeah, that's what happened. They had just found the ice crystals when one of the natives of this icy wasteland— a large, sentient creature, that looked like the ice version of Bigfoot, or maybe the abominable snowman— punched him in the face.

The blow had knocked him out cold, and now he was coming to. His eyes slid open, and he groaned. All around him was ice. Of course, that didn't surprise him, because they're in an _ice_ dimension. It looked like he was in a prison cell, and even the bars were made from ice. It looked too thick to be able to break with your bare hands, unfortunately.

"F-fuck..." he groaned again, reaching a hand up to grab at his pounding head. When he pulled his hand back, a bit of dried blood came back with it. He wiped it off on his jacked.

Before coming here, Rick created two jackets—one for him, and one for Morty— that had special heaters in them that were just warm enough to keep them from freezing to death. What made Rick frown, however, was the fact that the jacket he was wearing was _yellow._ He could have sworn he gave Morty the yellow one, and took the blue one for himself.

Speaking of, where was that kid? His vision was still blurred, and he had to squint in order to see anything solid, but as he looked to the other corner of the room, he could clearly see Morty leaned up against the wall in the corner. He had the blue jacket instead of the yellow one. He looked like he was sleeping, but there was also something very off about this situation. He wasn't sure what it was, but he had a strong hunch that something bad was happening.

Rick scrambled to his feet, using the surprisingly non-slippery ice wall to support him. His entire body protested against, his joints popping and cracking as he moved. His right foot nearly gave out from underneath him, and pain began to radiate from it. As he limped over to Morty, he could clearly see that the kid wasn't even really wearing the jacketed, it was more or less just draped over him awkwardly.

He slipped down next to the kid, grabbing him by the shoulder gently— he was cold to the touch. "M-Morty?" Rick stammered, shaking him a little bit. He was now noticing that Morty's lips were tinted a light blue and he could feel frequent shivers wrack across the teen’s frail body. His hair was a matted mess, and had little flakes of snow in it, and his skin was a sickly pale compared to its normal luster.

Rick looked down at the jacket, picking it up to examine it. He had to struggle to get it around so that he could feel the inside of it. The heat that it _should_ be giving off wasn't there at all. He felt around inside the jacket some more until he found the little device inside of it that was supposed to control the heat. It was smashed into bits, chunks of it missing, and wires sticking out. It must have gotten smashed when that native knocked him out. The jacket was broken, and Rick felt his throat tumble down into his stomach.

A cruel realization fell upon his shoulders: Morty switched the jackets and gave him the only working one.

Rick didn't know how long it had been, but this place's temperature was always in the negatives. And Morty had been sitting in it without the proper clothes, getting colder by the minute. And, shit, the kid probably has hypothermia at this point. Panic was rising within him.

"T-this fucking kid— Morty!" He tried again, shaking the kid harder this time, and he moaned, grumbling out a few unintelligible words. "C-c'mon, kid, are you fucking nuts?! What d-did you do?!" He started to shrug his way out of the yellow jacket.

Morty's eyes fluttered open, and for a moment he stared up at Rick with a confused expression. But once he realized what Rick was doing, he spoke. "R-Rick, no," He slurred, reaching out for him clumsily and uncoordinately. It took him a moment to find Rick, weakly grabbing his arm with numb fingers. Rick stilled, looking at him with a worried expression that Morty wasn't used to seeing. "Y-your... yy—jacket, Rick— he broke it." He continued once he was sure he had Rick's full attention. "I-I switched em. Y-you—He—your head—you're hurt R-Ri-Rick, y-you need it m-m-more than I do. Y-you need the g-good jacket." His voice was a jumbled slur, but Rick managed to understand it.

"M-Morty, I'm fine." Rick assured. He slipped the rest of the jacket off. "You're—I think you have hypothermia, Morty-"

"I'm f-fine!" Morty grumbled, pushing the jacket away when Rick tried to hand it to him.

"No, you're _not,_ Morty." Rick growled in response, but Morty was still trying to shove him away. "Take the damn jacket!"

"No!" Morty's voice rose as he struggled. "R-R-Rick, I-I-I can't take it. I-I can't."

"Jesus fucking—" Rick cursed angrily, desperately trying to wrap a struggling Morty in the yellow, still-working jacket. "M-Mort, Just— Stop struggling!"

"I c-can't, Rick, y-y-you—fuck you, R-Rick, I-I c-can't take it!" Morty used all his strength to push Rick away, but it wasn't working too well. Right now, he was shivering, weak, and in a weird haze. He didn't feel good at all. He was so _cold._ But Rick needed it more than him. Rick had gotten hurt, he remembered, and the ice monster broke his jacket's heater.

"W-why the fuck not, Morty?!" The scientist questioned in a harsh tone, retracing from the teen a little bit. He wasn't going to get anywhere if the kid continued to struggle like this. "Y-you're fucking—you're gonna freeze to death! L-look at yourself!" Rick instinctively reached for his flask, only to groan when he realized all of his pockets were empty. His hands were starting to shake, but not from the cold. He was _scared. Morty needed to take the jacket or he’d freeze to death, Goddamnit! Fuck!_

"S-since w-w-w-when do you care ab-about that?!" Morty snarled out, scooting further from Rick. He hugged himself tightly, huffing out a few puffs of air before continuing. "I-I'm— Rick, I'm just a Morty. I-It doesn't matter w-w-what happens to me. I-If I—If I die before you find a-a way out, y-you could—you can just g-get—you can get another Morty at the C-C-Citadel."

The words hit Rick's heart in a way that he'd never admit. Of course Morty thought he was replaceable— Rick was always a dick to him. Though Rick really did love Morty, he struggled immensely to admit that to anyone. So instead, he covered his emotions up in a true Rick fashion, groaning, and pinching the bridge of his nose. "F-fuck, kid. Still sore about that?" He practically forced himself to roll his eyes. Guilt was building up in his chest with every word that he uttered. "I don't have time to go to the Citadel,” He lied. Both him and Morty knew Rick had _plenty_ of time to go to the Citadel. He was only busy when he wanted to be. “If you died here, I-it would only make things harder on me." 

Morty glared at him intensely, a mix between disbelief and anger on his face. "I-I don't care, Rick." His head lulled to to the side, facing away from the scientist. "Y-you having to go to the _Citadel_ is s-s-s-s-" He huffed a shallow breath, shivering more due to the cold. "S-still m-m-more con—convenient t-than y-y—you _dying._ "

"Morty—“

"Ffff-fuck off, Rick." The teen interrupted, still not looking at him. "Y-y-you may not c—care about me, Rick, but I—I ca—care about you. And I-I'd do _anything_ for you, you a—ass—asshole. E-even if y—you're just g—gonna replace me I—in the end."

There was a long, cold silence, the only sound being Morty's quivering breath. Rick rand a hand down the side of his face, the words 'Fuck it' echoing in his mind. The kid wasn't going to let up, and every word Morty spat out was chipping away at his defenses. He was mentally panicking— Morty was _not_ in a good state right now, both physically and mentally. It was tearing him up inside. Morty had basically sacrificed his own well-being for Rick's sake, and it was only a matter of time before the cold would prove to be too much for the small boy. Morty was showing heavy signs of hypothermia, and if he didn't fix it soon, he might lose him. And then where would he be?

"M-Morty," Rick began, more softly than before. He reached forward, placing his hand on Morty's shoulder. He couldn't let him freeze to death. "Morty, look at me."

Reluctantly, Morty turned to look at him. He didn't say anything, his bottom lip quivering and his teeth silently chattering. He looked so close to passing out.

"I-I... I couldn't ever replace you, o-okay?" He looked straight into Morty's eyes as he said it, meaning every word. "I-I mean, w-what's the Rickest Rick without t-the Mortyest Morty, eh?" He offered the jacket again, urging Morty to take it.

Morty stared at him for what felt like an eternity, and the look of panic that overtook Rick's whole frame when he instead pushed the jacket away again was so obvious that Morty almost started crying right then and there. "I-I c—can't, Rick." He said for the umpteenth time. "P-please, I'll—I'll—I'll be fine. Y-... you... you have... to...-" Morty suddenly felt dizzy, like he'd just spend the past hour on a spinning t-cup ride. He started to slip forward, falling as the world seemed to spin around him in a dizzying display of blurry colors.

Rick lurched into action, catching him before he could fall to the ground, and pulled the boy close to his chest. Morty could hear the man’s heart beating rapidly in his chest, and he let out a choked sobbed of relief at the body heat coming off of Rick. He clutched tightly at the labels of his lab coat desperately, with fingers that he could hardly feel at this point.

Before Morty could react any further, Rick wrapped his arms around him, pulling the yellow jacket around them both at the same time, so that both of them were covered. He was lucky that he made the jackets large enough for this. He then took the blue one and pulled it around them as well, hoping that even if it didn't give off heat, it would still help keep the heat coming off the other jacket from escaping.

"R-Rick..." Morty choked out through the sobs he was finally letting out after suffering for the past few hours that Rick had been unconscious. "I-I can't—hnngh—Rick." Now that Morty was enveloped in the warmth of both Rick's body heat and the jacket, he couldn't get himself to physically pull away. But verbally, he continued to protest against it. And against Morty's pleas, the older only pulled Morty closer so that he was sitting on his lap. His arms coiled around him protectively, and he rested his chin on top of Morty's head.

"Shh, Morty, it's o-okay." He cooed softly. "Y-you're okay, buddy."

Morty buried his face into Rick's chest, muffling his broken sobs. Rick was so fucking _warm,_ and he'd been so cold for so long. Morty had been so cold that he could hardly move— could hardly stay conscious— could hardly feel his limbs.

But even when Rick came with the offer of warmth, he'd tried so hard to hold back. He was a stubborn, selfless brat, and he was proud of it. Better him die than Rick. But now the old bastard wasn't even giving him a choice in this. Why? _Why_ was he doing this? Why was he trying so hard to help him?

"I-I c—could—I couldn't s-stand to l—let you freeze, R-Rick." He hiccuped. Rick held Morty's violently shivering frame even closer to himself, and Morty melted right into him. "Coul-couldn't let you d-die—I need y-you, Rick. I n-need you so m-much."

"Kind of a s-selfish m-move, Mort." Rick spoke sadly. "I need you too, kiddo. A-and not for—for the bullshit brainwaves thing. You—" Rick took in a shaky breath, his voice taking a darker, more broken tone. "If I had w-woken up even an hour later, you probably would've been dead, Morty. You understand? Y-you could be dead..."

"Y—you coulda—you would have d-died if—if I did—didn't switch... jackets.” Morty countered. He was getting more drowsy by the second, the warmth making him feel calme and safe despite how bad he knew the situation was. He really could have died... but that didn’t matter.

After a moment of taking in Morty's words, Rick spoke again. "Don't ever do something like this again, M-Morty." He sounded stern. "I can't— you can't just sacrifice y-yourself for me. I-I ask you for a lot of things: Your time; your help; your sleep; your company; your forgiveness... but Morty, I-I'd _never_ ask you to give your life."

"T-that's— it's not som—something y-you ask for, Rick." Morty whispered, barely loud enough for Rick to hear. "Y-y-y-you don't have to ask f-for it. It's something that's—that's given to you. B-because I c—care about you. Because I l-love you, Rick."

Morty felt Rick tense up at his words. "I'd do _a-anything, Rick_. A-anything to keep y—you alive. I-I don't know—don't know what I'd do without you." Life had been boring and miserable before Rick showed up. And even though Rick was an asshole who Morty was at least 90% sure didn’t care about him, his life had significantly improved since he arrived. Rick was his best friend, and without him... life would go back to how it had been before. Loneliness would once again be the only thing that he knew, and he’d rather die on some shitty ice-planet in space than go back to that.

"Don't s-say that." Rick sighed heavily. He didn't want Morty to think like that. He didn't want the kid to be ready to sacrifice his own life to save his. It felt wrong. "I-I'm not worth it, Mort."

Morty made a sound that could be described as either a chuckle or a sob. "T-that's for—for me to d-d-decide, Rick." Morty's whole body seemed to relax and his breath deepened.

Passed out, it seems.

"Ah, kid, you're driving me nuts." Rick's voice wavered as he spoke, and it was all he could do not to cry. His heart was heavy in a way that only Morty could make him feel. He cared about him, despite not being able to really care about anyone else. The kid really was something special, and no one else seemed to notice it except for him. 

He shifted around, maneuvering Morty in his arms to a much more comfortable position. He almost couldn't believe what Morty had just done. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Morty could have _died._

...At least the kid is warmer now. Rick knows he wouldn’t have been able to handle it if Morty had died because of this.

Rick would get them out of here for Morty's sake.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry that it’s sort of incomplete... I don’t really know if I’ll ever continue this, so please don’t be disappointed if this fic is never updated. :(
> 
> However, if anyone has any ideas about how I should continue this, I’d love to hear it! I’m kinda looking for inspiration. Thanks for reading for what it is, though!


End file.
